Mark Henry On Whether Cody Rhodes Should Turn Heel if He Loses at SummerSlam & More

WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry recently discussed the road ahead for Cody Rhodes if he fails to defeat CM Punk for the Undisputed WWE Championship at SummerSlam this weekend.

Cody lost the Undisputed WWE Title to Sami Zayn in a Triple Threat Match at Night of Champions last month. He subsequently won a number-one contender’s match against Jey Uso to earn a shot at the title. However, he was attacked by Gunther ahead of the match and was ultimately replaced by CM Punk, who returned to WWE TV after 2.5 months and captured the title in front of his home fans in Chicago.

During a recent interaction with Adam Withers of casino.org, Henry was asked whether Cody should turn heel and reinvent his career should he fail to dethrone Punk in Minneapolis on August 1. Henry said that he believes that Cody has been acting like a bad guy for the past six months, and he must fully embrace it if he loses at SummerSlam. Here’s what Mark Henry said:

On Whether Cody Rhodes Needs To Reinvent Himself If He Loses to CM Punk

“Absolutely. He needs to carry on being a heel. He’s been a heel for the last 6 months. He says and does stuff that is not what a good guy would do. So, I already think that Cody is in the heel era; he’s in bad guy territory, and I think he’s been doing a really good job of keeping the wool over our eyes. And now I think people can see the new Cody a little bit clearer, and they’re surprised. They’re like, ‘Man, Cody said what?’ and Cody is just taking it all in stride. He did not go off; he just played it cool. I thought that when he lost to Sami, I thought he was going to lose it. I thought he was going to go crazy and just become a complete loose cannon, but it didn’t happen. But if there ever was a chance for it, that would have been it.”

Mark Henry Believes Cody Rhodes Will Get Tougher With a Loss

“I think that the best is yet to come from Cody. Either at SummerSlam or after it. But Cody’s competition is getting harder. He’s going to have to go against Sami again. He’s going to have to go through Gunther again. He’s gonna have to go through Jacob Fatu. We don’t know where Drew McIntyre is and how he plays into the equation, but he’s too good to leave out of it. Cody’s got a hard road ahead of him, and he’s gotta dig deep, but I see only good things for him.”

Cody Rhodes and CM Punk will headline SummerSlam 2026 Night One. You can check out the lineup for Night One & Two RIGHT HERE.